§ 2-16-2. Definitions. (a) For the purpose of this chapter:

(1) "Director" means the director of the department of environmental management for the state of Rhode Island and his or her authorized agents.

(2) "Person" means any individual, association, partnership, society, or combination of individuals, or any institution, park, or other public agency administered by the state or by any city or town.

(3) "Plant parts and plant products" means all vegetative and propagative structures constituting parts of the plant body or produced by plants, whether intact or subdivided, and whether or not still attached to the plant, when existing in a crude or natural state, or which have not been processed in a manner adequate to free them of plant pests or to cause them to be incapable of harboring, vectoring, being, transmitting, or transporting those plant pests.

(4) "Plant pest" means any insect, nematode, protozoan, crustacean, or any other invertebrate animal, and any virus, bacterium, fungus, or other member of the plant kingdom, in any stage of development, known to be or suspected of being capable of causing serious injury or damage to, or of inciting serious diseases in, plants or parts and products of plants, whether in the field, in storage, or in markets and any animal, plant, plant part or product, or inanimate object constituting a source of danger to plants, plant parts and products, by reason of a capacity to constitute a vector, reservoir, alternate host, place of breeding, hibernation refuge, or vehicle of distribution, for any of the types of organisms mentioned in this subsection.

(5) "Viruses": All viruses shall be considered to be animate.

(b) Terms or words as used in this chapter are construed to import either singular or plural form, and either masculine or feminine gender.

History of Section. (P.L. 1955, ch. 3547, § 2; G.L. 1956, § 2-16-2.)